TUS food bank supports over 100 students per week

Over 100 students are utilising the support provided by TUS Athlone's food bank every week with between 20 or 30 students receiving food each night.

The Chaplain at TUS Athlone, Fr Shay Casey, said that the service is “very popular” with local students.

Fr Casey has a team of six students who live with him and help to run the food bank which he said he wouldn't be able to do on his own. “We go at eight o'clock every night, so it'd be half 10 or 11 o'clock before you get back, and you just wouldn't be able to do all that on your own so these other students help me.”

Fr Casey said the students also put him in touch with other students who require support. “A lot of students that are very poor would live on rice and on soup so if they can get a bit of vegetables or bread or something like that, it makes an awful difference to them.”

The chaplain added that the food bank has its own app which helps them to deliver to different student villages. The service operates six nights a week, year round, delivering a variety of food depending on what each student needs such as meat, fruit, vegetables and bread.

“It's mostly to our students that we deliver to. Occasionally we'd have some parents as well that would need food.” The food bank delivers to Wellmount Student Village and Croi Oige Student Accommodation in Athlone, along with other areas.

Food Cloud is the parent organisation involved with the food bank. It works with large retailers such as Tesco and Aldi to make sure that food that's going out of date isn't dumped.

Fr Casey said that the food bank collects food from Tesco in Athlone prior to its expiry date to deliver to students. “Every night we go to Tesco and by eight o'clock they'll have a number of baskets of food that they feel they have reduced, but they're not going to be sold and they will give them to us.”

Fr Casey explained that it takes him and his team about three hours every night to collect and deliver the food to the different houses. He said that they receive a readout from Tesco every night detailing the cost of the food as everything they receive is barcoded and registered.

Fr Casey said that the staff in Tesco Athlone are “very patient” with the food bank team. “We go in at eight o'clock and they maybe have 101 other things to do before they clock out but they come and fix it up for us. They're very good and very kind and I think that has to be acknowledged as well.”

Last year the food bank saved €68,000 worth of food from being dumped by giving it to those in need. Fr Casey said that it would be “scandalous” and a “terrible tragedy” in the era that we're living in if this food was wasted “when there's people who are hungry and hanging on.”

He stated: “The average student would say that we would save them maybe 20 to 30 euros a week.” He remarked that they often receive messages from the students at the end of the year saying that they couldn't have survived in college without the help of free food.

The college chaplain cited rent increases and rising fuel costs as issues of concern for students and said that the SUSI grants are “not at all adequate.”

“The maximum grant you'd get under SUSI would be about €620 a month and that would be gone completely in rent.” Fr Casey added that students come back after a long trip from counties such as Mayo, Donegal or Kerry and they're “faced with the empty fridge” and nothing there for the breakfast.

TUS Athlone's food bank has been running for the past ten years and also operated during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Fr Casey said that the chaplaincy and the pastoral care team were the only people who remained on the campus and gave out food. “We used to collect food from the canteen and bring them three meals a day, especially if they were cocooning or had COVID so we'd just bring the meals to the door.”

Fr Casey said that the students are “great” and that they're “fantastic people to work with.”

“They appreciate every effort that's made to help them and we try to make their journey through college as painless as possible. I have a great 'grá' (love) for people who come from poor backgrounds and have had to struggle to make it through college. I'm one of ten myself, so I appreciate what it's like not to have money.”

The local priest said that some students find it difficult to ask for help as they're not used to it. Despite this, Fr Casey said that as the word got out about the food bank that it has become more acceptable for students to take the food but that with Irish students there is a still a “hesitancy” to take free food.

Fr Casey concluded that despite the fact that the economy “seems to be booming” there are still a lot of people who are struggling. “If we don't find a way of helping the marginalised, they'll always be dependent.”

Anyone who may require the support of TUS Athlone's food bank should call Fr Shay Casey on 087 240 2514.